Bowie Building Project Delayed

The Prince George's County Council approved revisions this week in the county's 10-year water and sewer plan, which will delay a Levitt New Town project in Bowie and will advance an Arnold Palmer-sponsored golf club and real estate project in Mitchellville.

By a vote of 10 to 0, the concil approved plans to include the Levitt New Town Center property, a 385-acre tract in Bowie, in Water and Sewerage Area Four. It had been in area three.

The change means that the Levitt project cannot receive water and sewer hookups for at least four years, since area four consists of projects scheduled for hookups in four to six years. The decision could delay the Levitt project indefinitely.

Area three projects are scheduled for hookups in three to four years, and this week the council formally approved hookups for many of those projects.

The Palmer-sponsored project, which calls for construction of a 36-hole golf course and a housing development west of Enterprise Road and north of Woodmere Road on the county-owned Schatenstein Property, also was moved to area four. It had been in area six - projects scheduled to receive hookups in 10 to 20 years.

The project, which is being developed by Golf American Corp. of Maryland, is a pet of County Executive Winfield M. Kelly Jr., who called a press conference to announce the plans and to introduce Palmer. The homes that are to be built around the golf courses will be in the $100,000 to $200,000 range, the kind of homes Kelly hopes will be built in abundance in the county in order to attract more white collar residents.

The council also moved the Belair Golf Club project into area six, delaying the start of the golf club indefinitely. The club had requested that it moved to area three, so it could begin building in Bowie. Strong citizen opposition to the project was one reason it was moved to area six.

In all, the revisions add 2,647 single-family dewllings and 3.6 million square feet of industrial-commercial land to the list of approval area three projects sent to the council by Kelly last week.

However, the most important project added to area three by the revisions this week, Northampton's Largo-Lottsford new town plan, still faces several zoning hurdles.

Kelly's list of hookup approvals and the revisions, all approved by the council, will be added to the 10-year plan. All the approved hookups at this point are in area three.

In other action, the council decided to send back to public hearing an amended bill on the public display and selling of obscene matter. The amendments would make the bill more stringent.

The move was made at the urging of council member Francis B. Francois, who pointed out that the wording of the bill might allow store clerks in non-supervisory positions to sell "dirty" magazines and reading material to juveniles.

The bill is designed to force shopkeepers to keep pornographic materials out of sight and out of reach of persons under 18.

As amended, the bill would subject non-supervisory personnel to prosecution if they take materials from under the counter and show them or sell them to juveniles. Store owners who hire juveniles and put them in a position to sell such materials also could be prosecuted.

Finally, the amended bill strikes a paragraph that exempted library personnel from the law, and instead, makes them liable if the material they distribute is judge to be "harmful" to juveniles.

Council Chairman Francis W. White, chief sponsor of the bill, asked that the bill, without the amendments, be approved and that the amendments be considered later as a separate resolution.

"I'd like to get this bill on the books as soon as possible," he said, "possibly as an emergency bill so we could get the material off the counters just as soon as possible."

White said he believed that the 152 telephone calls the council had received this week urging the adoption of the bill was indicative of community concern.

Francois argued, however, that a separate resolution would have to go through the complete legislative process and that time would be saved by simply amending the original bill.

Other council members agreed and the amendments were added. The public hearing probably will be the held the first week of September.

The council also enacted a hotly contested bill that gives the county Consumer Protection Commission the power to impose fines of up to $1,000 on businesses that violate consumer protection laws on more than one occasion.

Opposition to the bill had centered the belief that the bill would discourage new businesses from moving to the county and that the consumer commission would be given power unusually reserved for the courts.

The bill was approved 7 to 4 and is scheduled to go into effect Oct. 1.

The council also passed a bill that will require any person installing or doing repair work on elelctrical appliances powered by new forms of energy - such as solar energy - to obtain a license showing that he or she is qualified to work with appliances using that specific form of energy.

"There are going to be a lot of new people getting involved in these things and we need to ensure that all of them are qualified," said David G. Hartlove Jr., cosponsor of the bill.

The council is expected to review a resolution later this year that would provide a tax cut to business and property owners that use solar energy. The cuts could be as large as 50 percent on a yearly tax bill.